ll make it too hard for Teddy if we pack tight together."
"That's so!" cried the others. And so they settled very, very gently.
All night the snowflakes fell. In the morning Father Sun poked his head
out from behind a cloud.
"My, my! How fine the earth looks!" he exclaimed. "I think that's about
enough, children." And Father Sun smiled so broadly that the earth
people said, "How dazzling the sun is!" and squinted, and rubbed their
eyes.
When the last flake had settled in its place, Teddy buttoned on his
leggings to go out.
"Are you keeping your eyes open this morning, Teddy?" asked his mother.
Teddy laughed. "Of course," he said. "I couldn't see if--" Then he
stopped abruptly. "It _is_ a way, isn't it, mummie!" he cried.
"Yes," she said. "I think I hear twenty-five cents dropping into the
apple. I will give you that much if you will shovel a path to the gate."
"Goody!" cried Teddy. Then he hunted up the snow shovel and fell to
work.
"Teddy! Teddy!" Teddy looked up. The old lady across the way was
standing in her door. "I'll give you a quarter if you'll clean my walk."
"All right!" Teddy shouted back. And then how the snow did fly as he dug
and scraped and shoveled!
"My, my!" said Father Sun. "What an industrious boy!" And he smiled
till Teddy grew quite warm, and the busy hands in the red mittens were
never once cold.
When the day was over, four bright quarters lay snugly in the apple
bank.
The day before Christmas Teddy emptied the bank and went shopping. And
that night, when the washerwoman's boy came for the clothes, on top of
the basket lay, not mittens, but a pair of thick gloves lined with wool.
Father Sun was so happy about it that he smiled all Christmas Day. And
so did Arthur. And so--more brightly than either--did Teddy.
THE RED-LETTER DAY
"What's a red-letter day, Nora?" asked Betty, coming into the kitchen
where Nora was doing the Saturday baking.
"It's a day when something 'specially nice happens," answered Nora.
"Why?"
"Mamma just said it would be a red-letter day if she got _all_ her
mending done by night. I wish," added Betty wistfully, "that I could
make it a red-letter day for her!"
"You can!" cried Nora. "I'll show you how to make a cake, and then she
won't have to make it. She can have the time to mend."
"Goody, goody!" cried Betty, when her mamma said she might try.
"I didn't tell her about the red-letter part," she explained, as she and
Nora m
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